Ask and ye shall receive...!

I don't normally post things so personal, but I feel like if I don't write this down somewhere, I will forget it and forgetting would be extremely un-grateful!

For the past year and a half I have struggled with my hip. Any of you who know me, know a little bit about my struggles and that I have needed to have my hip fixed for quite awhile now.

I have tried rather unsuccessfully to hide my problem, but it has gotten harder and harder to hide my limp and to hide the pain I am in every single day. The pain gets worse every day, and anyone who has ever been in pain for long periods of time knows how it can affect your life and the lives of the other poor people who are around you for any length of time!

I have become so frustrated with not being able to do all the simple mundane tasks a wife and mother should do! Thankfully I have an understanding husband who knows that the house doesn't get vacuumed as often as it should because it just hurts too much to do it, and the grocery shopping gets done a little bit at a time all week long because I can't stand to walk around Wal-Mart for very long periods of time, along with a million other little things that don't get done that should!

After many months of searching, my sweet Mother in law found me a Dr. at the U who could help me. I was so excited and anxious to meet with him! I was to the point where I not only knew I needed surgery...I WANTED it and you know you need surgery when you actually WANT it!

Like many things in my life, meeting with Dr. Peter's was not going to be an easy task. I ran into tons of road blocks! One of which was that Dr. Peters was not a preferred Dr. with my insurance company, even though he is the ONLY Dr. in the entire Mid-west who does the surgery I need!

After many days of talking to people at IHC, talking with other Dr.'s and anyone else who would listen to me, another decision had to be made. If I wanted to pursue this any further, I would need to go through a medical appeals process. Basically I needed to tell my insurance why they were wrong to tell me I couldn't go to Dr. Peters to get my hip fixed and show them why I was right in wanting to go.

I am really not a persuasive person, and I had no idea what to even write, but I went ahead and wrote my letter, and sent it off. I was told point blank that the odds of my appeal going through the first time was VERY low and in fact I should assume that it would be denied on the first time, and prepare to go to the second phase of the appeal.

I was trying to prepare myself for my first rejection and trying to figure out my next plan of attack. I knew, or at least I had been told, that the decision would be made with in 30 days, so sometime in February I would be told what the next step would have to be.

Last night I got a phone call that I wasn't expecting! Sue from IHC called me last night to let me know that my appeal had been approved! I was given the go ahead to make an appointment with Dr. Peters and to schedule my surgery. Not only had it all been approved, it was approved on the first go around, the round that apparently never saw approvals!

As Sue was talking to me and telling me that I could now call Dr. Peters office and set things up, I started to cry. I tried to hold back the tears, but the relief and the weight that was lifted off my shoulders was amazing! I didn't realize how stressed out I was over this whole thing!

I had beat the odds once again! I had had these kinds of conversations before. I had been told that something wasn't worth doing, and that the rate of rejection was very high, but somewhere along the way, I had forgotten that experience.

Four years ago when Chris and I decided to get married, we were told that if we wanted to get married in the temple, we would have to send a letter of "appeal" to the First Presidency asking their permission. Chris needed to be granted a "Temple Divorce" something that we were told many times was very hard to obtain and that hardly anyone ever got! People told us that we should just get married civilly and then get sealed a year later. Our families would have understood, and there was no "shame" in not getting married in the temple considering our "circumstances". That just wasn't what either of us had envisioned, and as long as there was some chance, we were going to take it.

So we went ahead and sent our "appeal" in, "against all odds". Within about 2 weeks, MUCH faster than we ever expected, we were sent a letter that told us we were cleared to be married in the temple. I remember those same feelings of relief and joy when that letter came, and also those same tears!

It truly amazes me the way the Lord works! His hand really is in everything! He cares about each of us and about the trials that we face! I felt so humbled last night thinking of how he had set aside his time to help ME. How he understood, and knew the pain I was in, and how he stepped in and fixed what I couldn't fix. Not only did he do it once, but he did it twice! How was I so lucky to have had him step in like that for me twice? And in true Father fashion, he did it in a way that was specifically for me. He knows me well enough to know how impatient I am. He pushed me to the "end of my rope" and then rewarded me with being able to have an answer quickly!

I am so grateful for a Heavenly Father who loves me, who knows me, and who wants me to be happy in every aspect of my life!